NMSU’s CMI, athletics team up for promo

It took more than 30 hours of filming over a couple of months for New Mexico State University Creative Media Institute for Film and Digital Arts students and staff to create a promotional video for the NMSU Aggie football team’s 2016-17 season, said CMI Assistant Professor Ross Marks, who directed the video.

The result, he said, includes not only Aggie football players, but NMSU singers and dancers as well, in what many hope will be the Aggies’ best gridiron season in some time.

“Talking to the team, there was a lot of enthusiasm and excitement,” Marks said. “I feel like this video in a small way might even help them get an edge on the field,” he said.

“Coach (Doug) Martin told me when I took this job that he was going to build a football program and not just a team,” said NMSU Chancellor Garrey Carruthers. “He has done that and I am proud of their academic progress as well as their gradual improvement in competition. This is the year! Let’s all help them win the Sun Belt championship,” Carruthers said.

In the video, “I wanted to show different elements of university life, plus the football team,” Marks said. “This isn’t just about football and athletics; we are celebrating the entire university. The second thing we wanted to show was all

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Members of the New Mexico State University Creative Media Institute for Film and Digital Arts students and staff create a promotional video for the NMSU Aggie football team’s 2016-17 season.

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the hard work that goes on in the weight room and all the behindthe- scenes stuff that goes into being a football team.”

Marks said the film was a joy for him to work on because it combines his “two great loves: sports and film.”

Marks said CMI and the NMSU Athletics Department began working together when NMSU Deputy Athletic Director Chet Savage visited CMI and asked Marks to produce a promotional video for the basketball team.

Savage is “an incredible supporter and a big fan of what we’re doing over at CMI,” Marks said.

“This year, I wanted to come up with something really exciting for the football team,” he said.

The football-team video was shot by CMI Assistant Professor Mitch Fowler, edited by CMI Assistant Professor Sherwin Lau and produced by recent CMI graduate Katrina Marquez. “It was really the four of us,” Marks said.

NMSU Professor and Director of Dance Debra Knapp choreographed the work of NMSU dance students in the video, and NMSU Choral Director John Flannery directed the University Singers.

“It was a big collaboration between faculty and students with more than 30 students involved in the entire production,” Marks said.